[TN-Bird] Re: Another Spring Mystery

One year we had a phoebe and a Carolina wren build nests on the front porch.  
The wren nest was in a hanging plant.  One day the phoebe babies had all  
vanished.  Soon after that, at dusk we heard the wrens screaming.  A three-foot 
rat snake had shinnied up the wooden post, then slithered across a beam and 
down the plant hanger.  It had a baby wren (pretty well feathered out) in its 
mouth, and was constricting another one.  We moved the snake quite a ways from 
the house, and got the birds back.
The next evening luckily we had to let the dogs out.  That danged snake was 
climbing up the post again.  This time we took him to the other side of the 
creek.  That worked.  The wrens finished raising their young.
I still love the rat snakes, because they keep the varmints our of the barns.
Jean Obrist
Bruners Grove, TN
Cocke Co.

- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tommy Curtis 
  To: TN-Bird Post 
  Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:16 PM
  Subject: [TN-Bird] Another Spring Mystery


  In addition to the delayed migration this year, here is another thing for 
which we can find no plausible explanation - our entire family of Carolina 
Wrens has vanished.  We've had this family since we moved here in 2003 and they 
have been successful in raising babies each year.  Last year from one hatch 
they had four little ones fledge.  But we have not heard or seen a single one 
of them this spring even though they were here all winter.  We're aware that 
the parents scatter the young during the day and then call the family together 
again in the evening.  But even with them being together at night it seems 
unlikely that a predator could catch every one of them.  We've seen no cats in 
our yard or woods this spring and even the raccoons have been absent.  There 
has been no change of habitat that would cause them to leave - they're so 
adaptive they've used a five quart plastic can with the side halfway cut out 
for successful nesting several times. We're just mystified about an e
   xplanation and we really miss their beautiful singing early in the morning - 
even with my (Tommy) impaired hearing  this is one of the sounds I get to enjoy 
to begin the day.  We just wonder if anyone else has had a disappearance like 
this and discovered why it happened.
  Tommy & Virginia Curtis
  Smithville, Tennessee
  DeKalb County
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                  -------------------------------
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                            Rosedale, VA
  __________________________________________________________
           
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                          ARCHIVES
 TN-Bird Net Archives at http://www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/

                       MAP RESOURCES
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________

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